Social Media

A Meme Made in Heaven: Redditor Proposal Woos the Internet

Redditor SirTechnocracy skipped the diamond ring floating in a champagne glass and the flashing scoreboard letters that spelled out "Marry me!" for his ultimate proposal. Instead, he used 21 pieces of art, one image of a diamond ring and the r/AdviceAnimals subreddit to pop the question to his girlfriend.

SirTechnocracy, whose real name is Malcolm Collins, posted an album to r/AdviceAnimals titled "This is a marriage proposal (she will recognize my username): I can’t believe the day is finally here" on Monday. The first image linked to another album on the r/pics subreddit, "Today I propose to my girlfriend online through art I commissioned from 18 artists."

About an hour after he posted the albums, the Stanford grad student's girlfriend posted on the thread with a simple reply: yes.

"In general, we love the online and nerd culture, so I wanted it to play a role in my proposal," Collins wrote an email to Mashable. "I was hoping to create something of a tribute to that culture; something that would both epitomize and celebrate it."

Reddit bans members from directing posts to a specific user on r/pics, so Collins couldn't use the album of commissioned art to directly propose. Instead, created a workaround with an album of memes on the r/AdviceAnimals subreddit that linked to the album of artwork.

"I should note that the memes were never intended to be a part of the post. I added them last second so I could place the post on r/AdviceAnimals, making it more likely that Simone [his fiancée] would see at least one post and less likely that the r/pics post would be deleted," Collins wrote.

The beautiful commissioned pieces range from anime-like drawings to illustrations that could come straight from the Adventure Time animators. They exhibit each artist's specific style while capturing the couple's essence. Collins is a longtime supporter of the online art community and loved the idea of bringing them into his proposal.

Collins received considerable feedback on Reddit, mostly congratulations and comments from those who thought his proposal was insanely awesome.

"I've really enjoyed reading both the positive and negative comments. Both of us have been deeply moved by people's kind words," Collins wrote. "In general, I think both the post and the reaction showcase a broad range of the way the interact interacts with art, the outside world and itself."

Both Collins and his fiancée responded to many of the comments on Reddit, answering questions about their relationship and the proposal.

Collins also hopes his proposal will encourage people to stop stereotyping others immersed in web culture.

"One common stereotype is that of a 'neckbeard,' which you hear a lot in the comments — this fictional individual (who is fat, unhygienic, lives in his mother's basement, and is unemployed) is an easy-to-denigrate straw man and allows one to dismiss active participants within the online world out of hand," the groom-to-bewrote. "The truth is that online culture reflects the full range of individuals within our society, many of whom are well-adjusted, active and successful."

Take a look at some of the commissioned art in the gallery below. Click here for Simone's Google+ album, where you can view all of the pieces.

Would you ever propose to your significant other online? Share with us in the comments below.

What's Hot

More in Social Media

What's New

What's Rising

What's Hot

Mashable
is a leading global media company that informs, inspires and entertains the digital generation. Mashable is redefining storytelling by documenting and shaping the digital revolution in a new voice, new formats and cutting-edge technologies to a uniquely dedicated audience of 42 million monthly unique visitors and 24 million social followers.